Bob McCarty Writes

Members of the mainstream media are having a field day after it was announced today that Dave Checketts, owner of the National Hockey League’s St. Louis Blues, had decided to drop conservative radio talk show legend Rush Limbaugh from the group interested in purchasing the National Football League’s St. Louis Rams.   Conveniently, they ignore the fact that the league’s biggest problems stem not from the owners or prospective owners, but from the players themselves.

Players represent such a large problem that, according to a Wall Street Journal report one year ago, the league had to hire former police officers and FBI agents as security chiefs, order extensive background checks, install video-surveillance systems in locker rooms, chase down rumors and sometimes forbid players from talking to the press.  Why?  To protect $7 billion of revenue generated by the league.

Apparently, cases involving league players and murder charges, cocaine use and drunk driving resulting in death were not deemed serious enough by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to permanently suspend three players I featured in an NFL-related post (see Allegations Against Vick Pale in Comparison) two years ago.  Descriptions of their crimes appear below:

In January 2000, Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis was charged with double murder and, after pleading guilty to obstruction charges, never missed a down on the gridiron;

That same year, Jamal Lewis, also on the Ravens at the time (now with the Tennessee Titans), served four months in federal prison and two months in a halfway house on charges related to a cocaine deal; and

Finally, nearly a decade ago, St. Louis Rams defensive end Leonard Little spent 90 days in jail with four years probation and was suspended for eight games after being convicted of driving drunk and broadsiding a car driven by Sue Gutweiler, a 47-year-old mother of two. Oh, did I mention Gutweiler died as a result of Little’s actions? It’s true — and did I mention he was arrested on drunk-driving charges again in 2004? It’s true, and he’s still playing for the Rams!

No one in his right mind could deem anything done by Limbaugh, history’s most popular radio talk show host, more objectionable and/or more harmful than the actions of these players and others since.  Those who do must have the wrong halves of their brains tied behind their backs.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Incredibly, Ray Lewis (Baltimore Ravens), Jamal Lewis (Cleveland Browns) and Leonard Little (St. Louis Rams) are STILL IN THE LEAGUE.